The Tale of the Deer
by LunaBeth203
Summary: The tale of Lily and James' seventh year contains new love, heartbreak, drama and dilemas. With all of that stirred into a school year in the middle of a war Lily knew she would need someone to depend on, yet never did she think that it would James Potter
1. POTTER!

Lily was once again caught in the last minute rush to get onto the Hogwarts express. This year was her last year at Hogwarts and she was determined to make it her best. She was off to a good start; she'd been made head girl, a title she'd been working towards her whole Hogwarts life.

Lily squinted back at her parents through the pelting rain they were Muggles and even after seven years of dropping their daughter off at platform nine and three quarters they still weren't quite used to the magic buzzing in the air.

"Goodbye darling." Lily's mother sobbed as she swept her daughter into one last bone crushing hug.

"We'll miss you sweet heart." her father shouted over the wailing wind and excited chatter of Hogwarts students. Lily grinned up at him before embracing him in a large hug.

"I better get going, tell Tuney I said goodbye." Lily's parents smiled wistfully, wishing their elder daughter loved Lily as much as Lily loved her, but unfortunately Petunia hated Lily, it as as clear as ice.

Lily gave her parents a last kiss before dragging her suitcase towards the train. After heaving it into the Express Lily continued up the train peering into compartments searching for her friends.

Soon she found the compartment she was looking for; inside there were three girls. A girl with frizzy dirty blonde hair sat curled in the corner with a book which Lily recognised as the Muggle novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. This was Lucie. Beside Lucie sat Juliet, Juliet was the sort of girl every boy in the whole school wanted to go out with. She had light blonde hair which flowed just passed her shoulders and her grey-blue eyes could turn icy cold in a second. Juliet was the complete opposite of Lucie, she was not at all shy and would never read a book for fun. She and Lucie were best friends and, for some reason beyond Lily, it worked. Opposite Juliet was Summer. Summer was Lily's best friend and had been since second year, she was extremely pretty. With her slightly tanned skin, long, wavy, chocolate brown hair and deep brown eyes she never failed to make boys twist in their seats to get another glance at her she didn't have them drooling like Juliet did but she was quite close.

"Hi guys." Lily greeted as shoved her trunk in the overhead compartment.

"Lily!" Juliet squealed jumping up for a hug, Lily hadn't seen Juliet all summer as she'd been staying with her grandparents in France.

"Hey Julie, how was your summer?" she asked as she hugged Summer and Lucie in turn.

"Boring. My mum reckoned it'd be fun to go find out about the Veela side of the family. It. Was. Not." Lily laughed, if she'd been in Juliet's position she'd have found it fascinating and she was about to tell her so but Juliet was busy digging through her trunk to find the newest fashion magazine.

"How was everyone else's summer?" Lily asked the other girls. Summer shrugged, she'd seen Lily more than Lucie, and Lucie grinned.

"It was really good, I went to Devon with my dad for a week when he got time off, so that was really good. Other than that I didn't do much." her voice was soft and even but you hear the love behind it when she talked about her dad. When she was six Lucie's mum left, she was a Muggle and terrified at Lucie's outbursts of magic, even though her husband had warned her. Later that year she left and that was the last Lucie saw of her. Ever since Lucie has blamed herself for her mum leaving.

"That's great Luce. Guys I have to go, Head Girl, got to go to the meeting." Lily said hurriedly as she left the compartment, leaving the three girls staring after her mouths hanging.

"She...she...she's Head Girl." Summer stuttered.

"I told you she would be." Lucie replied in a sing-song voice.

"But Alice was the prefect." Juliet stammered.

"Yes, but she couldn't cope with the work load and Lily was always helping her, wasn't she?" Lucie chided. Juliet looked thoughtful for a minute before nodding and going back to her magazine.

**Mischief*Managed**

Lily smiled to herself as she walked up the train to the Head's Compartment. There was nobody there yet so Lily decided to sit and wait. Over the next five minutes all the prefects entered, everyone was here except the Head Boy, Lily decided to wait another five minutes for him; after all he might be sorting out trouble. Five minutes later still no show. Lily sighed and decided to start without him.

"Hi, I'm Lily Evans, the new Head Girl." Lily smiled warmly at the prefects, trying to diminish the nervousness in the air. "The Head Boy hasn't turned up yet, so we're going to have to start without him." then, as if on cue, a tall, well muscled boy tumbled into the room.

"Sorry I'm late, I got lost." he panted.

"It's-POTTER!" Lily, about to forgive the muscular body, finally looked up into the boy's face. It was James, prankster, Marauder, best in transfiguration, (and Lily's favourite nickname) arrogant toe rag, Potter.

"Evans!" James shouted gleefully. "I knew you'd miss me."

"Potter. Why. Are. You. Here?" Lily whispered, seething silently.

"I'm Head Boy." he grinned.

"Merlin no." Lily put her head in her hands.

"I'm sorry Evans, dearest, but Merlin says yes." James contradicted.

"We'll deal with this later." Lily hissed before turning back to the prefects and giving them their duties. After about an hour, where James had behaved extraordinarily well and even contributed to the speech Lily was giving, the prefects left.

"Potter, how on earth are you Head Boy?" Lily asked in disbelief.

"You know, that's what my mum said." James mused. "I dunno really. I just suppose Dumbledore had some sort of mental break down. I did send him a letter and asked if I needed to call St. Mungo's to check if his mental health was okay, he just replied saying he'd been asked that many times, and he knows he made the right choice."

"So you haven't body binded the real head boy somewhere?" Lily questioned hopefully.

"Nope." James smirked, then his eyes went wide with delight, realisation dawning on his face.

"What?" Lily snapped, then her eyes too went wide, but from horror. "Merlin no."

"Sorry Evans, but Merlin say YES!" James whooped.

**Always**

Lily stomped back into the compartment with her friends a scowl dominating her face.

"What's up Lils? Potter made Head Boy?" Summer teased. Lily screamed and fell face first onto the seat.

"Uh oh." Lucie commented, looking over the top of her book, Lily nodded in agreement.

"He's not!" Summer gasped.

"He is." Lily moaned mournfully, Juliet began to laugh uncontrollably, tears cascading down her cheeks. "SHUT UP!" Lily yelled, throwing a pillow at her.

"P-P-POTTER. I'm sorry it's just so funny!" she gasped between laughs, Lucie to was hiding her giggles behind her book. "And the best part is you have to share a dorm with him." Juliet laughed.

"I know!" Lily cried.

The rest of the journey passed with Juliet teasing Lily, Lucie reading her book and Summer, always the optimist, trying to find some light in what had become of Lily's dark seventh year.

**I Solemnly Swear I'm Up To No Good**

Lily sat as far away from James and the rest of the Marauders (Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew) as she could at the feast. She noticed James kept glancing her way as he ate but he made no move to come and sit nearer. Sirius, however, did.

"What do you want Black?" Lily growled menacingly.

"Whoa, clam down Evans." Sirius said raising his arms in surrender. "I came to say hello to Juliet. After all what's wrong with saying hello to my girlfriend?"

"Fine." Lily spat violently spearing her sausages, which then swerved out of the way of her fork. Lily's scowl deepened, "Very funny Black." Sirius just laughed.

"Sorry Lily flower, I was only thinking of the poor sausage."

"Don't call me that." she said shortly, and yet again she tried to get her sausage and yet again it swerved away. "Let me get my sausage!" she screamed at Sirius, who shrugged and flicked his wand at the frustrating food.

"A thank you would be nice." he muttered as Lily shoved the sausage in her mouth, she just glared at him.

"Ignore her, she's in a bad mood about James." Juliet told Sirius.

"Isn't she always?" he teased, Lily just grumbled incoherently.

At the end of the feast all of Hogwarts left to go to their dorms, that was all of Hogwarts except Lily and James who stood, waiting for direction to their dorms.

McGonagall lead them up to the fourth floor to a tapestry of the Knights of the Round Table with Merlin hovering in the corner.

"Miss Evans, Mr Potter, this is how you enter your tower. All you have to do is call Merlin over and tell him the password. I will let you choose that in your own time, please tell it to nobody. If you have guests Merlin will tell you. Tomorrow meet with the Headmaster at seven-thirty in the evenings for your duties. Goodnight." McGonagall said curtly with a nod before turning on her heel and walking away.

"So Evans, what's the password going to be?" James grinned.

"I don't know, something simple." she yawned.

"How about we do each of the Knights of the Round Table, just to tie the password in with the tapestry?" James suggested.

"Let's start with King Arthur." Lily agreed.

"Okay, Merlin." James called into the tapestry. All the knights looked up and gave them a friendly smile or wave.

"Welcome." Merlin smiled. "Congratulations, what is your choice of password?" he asked.

"King Arthur." James replied confidently. The King Arthur in the tapestry looked over and bowed his head in appreciation

"You have chosen well young man, now off to bed." Merlin waved his wand and the tapestry rolled up revealing a doorway. James stood aside and let Lily pass through the doorway first and then followed her through.

The common room was beautiful. Everything was red and gold, it was a replica of Gryffindor common room only with a large wooden table at the back in front of the wall sized French windows, which lead out onto a balcony. The balcony was decorated with a simple garden table and four chairs obviously meant for studying.

"Whoa." James whispered, running a hand through his messy raven black hair.

"Whoa." Lily agreed. After a few minutes of appreciating the common room they decided to go to bed, Lily going up the left spiral staircase and James going up the right.

Lily glanced around and seeing it was exactly the same as her dorm in Gryffindor tower, with the exception of there only being one bed, she fell, fully clothed, onto the bed and as her head hit the pillow she was asleep.


	2. Seals and Siblings

**A/N: **** Thank you for the reviews! They do make my day!**

**Chapter 2**

Two weeks had passed and Lily still couldn't stand Potter. Somehow she managed to avoid him but when she did see him, strangely, he hadn't asked her out once. Even in head meetings he seemed, dare she say it, mature.

"Some thing's wrong with Potter." Lily stated as she slid into her seat next to Summer at breakfast.

"Why do you care?" Summer asked while she inspected her bacon.

"I don't." Lily scowled.

"Then why did you tell us?" Lucie teased as she grinned at her.

"Because, as a fellow head, I should be aware of the health of my co head." Lily replied a little too quickly.

"Sure." Summer snorted before swallowing a small piece of bacon.

"So why do you think some thing's wrong with him?" Lucie sighed ignoring Summer.

"He hasn't asked me out once this year."

"I thought you'd be pleased." Juliet commented as she slipped in next to Lucie.

"I am. It's just, odd that's all." Lily shrugged.

"You should give him a chance. I mean look at Sirius and I." Juliet spoke the last part as if the fact she and Sirius were together would settle six years of hatred.

"Yes look at you. You have dated every boy in Hogwarts and him every girl, it isn't a surprise you're together." Summer added, having demolished her bacon now working on her slightly cold scrambled eggs.

"Remus is nice." Lucie whispered so quickly Lily almost missed it.

"We all know you fancy Remus, Luce, and yes he's nice but James Potter is an arrogant toe-rag who acts like a two year old." Lily finished the conversation, but at that moment the said person walked into the Great Hall followed by... a seal? Ignoring the whispers and points James walked straight up to Professor Dumbledore and announced loudly,

"Sir, I have the list you asked for but I couldn't find the seal you said would be on my desk. So, naturally, I decided to summon one for you. Oh and after you've read the letter could I have the seal back; I don't intend to summon one for every letter I send you it would be much easier to use the same one."

"Mr Potter, I am speechless." Dumbledore stuttered.

"I know, she's a beauty, isn't she?" James gazed lovingly at the seal, who was currently stealing the food from the staff table.

"Could I speak to you about this in private?" Dumbledore gestured to the chamber off the Great Hall.

"Yes Professor sure." James continued muttering as he followed his Headmaster out of the hall.

"That poor seal!" Lily exclaimed angrily.

"Calm down Lils, I'm sure it's just a joke, the seal will be fine." Summer comforted.

"But what if it isn't? What if it can't cope in this climate? What if," Lily fretted.

"Lily. Calm. Down. It. Is. A. Seal." Juliet pronounced the words slowly and clearly.

"A seal is a living, breathing animal, just like you." Lily huffed, storming out of the Hall.

***You should have died***

Lily had potions that day, in her class there were only eight people her, Remus, a Hufflepuff boy, two Ravenclaws and a Slytherin girl along with Snape. Unfortunately, Slughorn wouldn't leave her alone, it was always,

"Oh, Lily can I ask you something?" or "Oh, Lily just one more thing." the most disturbing thing however was not Slughorn's insistent questioning it was Snape. He kept staring at her. Not day dreaming staring, full on eyes boring into her, daring her to look at him. Several times he tried to make conversation but she walked away quickly with her head down. At the end of class he tried once again to intercept her on the way to the door but was too slow.

"So Remus, how was your summer?" Lily asked, glancing over her shoulder, seeing where Snape was, he was still following.

"It was-" Remus began.

"That's nice, got to go to the toilet, see you." Lily had ducked into the Girls toilets before Remus could even say goodbye.

"You're so lucky." a voice wailed from the far end of the toilets and Lily cursed, it was Moaning Myrtle.

"Really? Why is that Myrtle." Lily questioned through gritted teeth.

"You have to avoid boys, I've heard all about you, James Potter and Snape. The Gryffindor girls were _dreadfully _jealous about James. You should appreciated having so many boys, one day you'll die and even _girls _will avoid you." Myrtle advised mournfully.

"Thank you Myrtle, but nobody avoids you, you just are never in the same place at the same time." Lily spoke kindly but what she said only caused Myrtle to wail louder.

"Who said we were talking about me?" she shrieked before flying into the U-bend.

***Always***

James had his charms homework sprawled out in front of him as Lily walked in from her last class to get her homework and go to the Gryffindor common room as usual, he didn't understand why, he'd matured over the summer and not asked her out once this year.

"Lily." he called, Lily's head snapped up.

"What?" she challenged.

"A letter came for you." James waved the envelope from beside him before going back to his homework, she obviously didn't want to talk to him so he wouldn't force her. Lily walked over and sat in the armchair by the fire with the letter. Opening it she quickly scanned the contents.

_Lily. _

_I have disowned you, we are no longer sisters. There is a law case at court in three weeks to make it official._

_Petunia._

Lily gazed at the paper, unable to comprehend what she'd read.

"You alright Lily?" James asked in worry from behind his pile of homework. Lily sniffed, clutching the letter and ran to find Summer, she needed her best friend right now, she needed Summer.

As soon as she had fled the common room Lily felt a strong pair of hands grab her from behind, she tried to shake them off as tears flowed freely down her cheeks.

"Wait, Lily what's wrong? What did it say?" James took Lily's chin softly with his hand and turned her head to face him. She tried to look away but he was too strong.

"Go away." she moaned.

"Not until you tell me what's wrong." James replied stubbornly. Lily shoved the crumpled now tear-stained letter into his chest. Quickly he read through it, frowning at what he saw. "Lily." he said softly and she broke into another wave of tears. Gently he coaxed her back into the warm common room where they sat on the squashy sofa, Lily sobbing into his chest, not caring who he was just craving a kind voice with comforting words.

"Lily, you are an amazing girl, you're pretty, intelligent, funny, kind and caring. Petunia doesn't deserve to have a sister like you if she treats such a wonderful girl so horribly." James comforted. "I had a brother." Lily sniffed, looking up at him curiously. James nodded, the only person he'd ever told this story to was Sirius but somehow he felt it would be OK to tell Lily, she'd understand. "His name was Lucas, he was a year younger than me and we were inseparable." James had a ghost of a smile on his face as Lily stared up at him. "But when he was seven he went shopping with my Uncle Jake, he could drive a car, I was going to go too but was ill. That day a Muggle crashed into them, they both died on impact, I always wonder what would've happened if I hadn't been ill or if I had gone instead of him." James stared into the fire lost in his thoughts.

"I'm so sorry." Lily gasped.

"It's not your fault, it was a long time ago, but what I mean is, Petunia should be glad she's got you and she wont appreciated what she had until it's gone, and if she still doesn't she's not worth the penny I'd spend for your thoughts."

"Thank you James." Lily sniffed.

"James?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Do you prefer Potter?" she said sarcastically.

"Does this mean we can be friends, just friends?" James asked hopefully.

"Yeah, I'd like that." Lily smiled.

"Yeah, me too." James agreed, as Lily rested her head against James chest, wondering how one letter could change so much.

**A/N- Please Please Please Review!**

**Check out my other stories and REVIEW! **

**Could I get 20?**

**Question- Do you think Snape was a stalker to Lily in seventh year? **

**I need your opinion to help me write.**


	3. SpinTheBottleTruthOrDareStrip

Lily awoke to sickly and faintly fishy breath warming her face, opening her eyes slowly she had to stifle a scream. There was a pair of large brown eyes staring at her, the eyes of a seal. James felt Lily stirring and woke sleepily.

"Wha-whoa." He commented.

"Why is there a seal in the common room?" Lily seethed.

"That's my pet Elvendork, I'm still not sure whether it's a boy or a girl so the name's unisex, plus, it's pretty cool." James commented grinning at the seal.

"You have a pet seal?" Lily questioned in a whisper.

"I had a misunderstanding with Professor Dumbledore." James replied as if it was perfectly natural to have a pet seal but as Lily was about to throw her arms up in frustration she remembered why she was calling Potter James, why they had both been sleeping on the sofa and why she felt so horribly miserable. Petunia had disowned her.

Seeing Lily's shoulders sag and her eyes begin to fill with crystal clear tears James hurried over to her, wrapping his strong arms around her trying desperately to comfort her, but Lily pushed him off.

"I'm fine." she chocked.

"No you're not, how about I go and get Summer?" James asked softly, in reply Lily nodded mournfully.

{~~~~*~~~}

"Lily." Summer ran over to her best friends, throwing her arms around her.

"Summer, I had a letter from Petunia." Lily sobbed.

"So, I thought getting letters from her was a good thing?" Summer peered at Lily's puffy red eyes in confusion.

"Read it." Lily thrust the thin, worn out paper into Summer's hand.

"Oh Lily come here." Summer gasped once she had scanned the letter, Lily fell into the comfort of Summer's arms. "Right, let's go see what your parents think of this." Summer took Lily by the hand and soon enough she was being dragged into the owlery.

{~~~*~~~}

"Parchment." Summer announced, handing Lily a piece of parchment to put my quill on. Hurriedly Lily scribbled a short note, for some reason she felt she couldn't pour my feelings out on her parents; Petunia was also their daughter and they hated when we fought- they certainly wouldn't like to hear the things she would call her if she could- and who knew maybe they felt the same. So Lily decided to write,

_Dear Mum and Dad,_

_Petunia has disowned me, do you know anything about this or is it just a cruel trick?_

_Lot of Love, hugs and kisses,_

_Lily xxxxxx_

Summer frowned at Lily's short note but fortunately she decided not to comment, instead- after sending the note with her owl Autumn (a name that most of the Marauders found hilariously ironic)- she pulled Lily down the cold and slippery owlery stairs and into a vacant classroom.

"Lily." Summer looked at her solemnly.

"What?" Lily looked down, taking a sudden interest in the sleeve of her robe.

"What's going on between you and Potter?" Lily laughed, Summer's eyebrows rose so much they were in great danger of being lost in her hairline. "Well?" She exclaimed.

"Nothing is going on between us, honestly after six years of hatred you think I will fall in love with him overnight?" Lily shook her head, showing her first true smile since she had received the letter from Petunia.

"Right," Summer said sceptically. "So what is happening?"

"We're just friends, he was really nice to me last night and I think he really has matured." Lily said earnestly.

"Glad you've finally seen that. The rest of us have been waiting for you to see it our way."

"I don't love him!" Lily screamed indignantly.

"Whatever." Summer teased. "Anyway, I have a feeling that you're going to get a cheering up Marauder style, come on." And with that the two girls started to make their way back to the heads common room.

"King Arthur." Lily called confidently into the portrait, Merlin gave her a soft sympathetic smile before the portrait swung open.

"Lily!" James shouted as the girls entered. "I brought some friends to cheer you up Marauder style!"

"They are so predictable." Summer muttered accepting a butterbeer from Remus.

"We are going to play a game of doom!" Sirius announced dramatically. "We shall play Truth and Dare the Marauder style."

"Why is everything Marauder style, can't you think of any other way to announce things?" Juliet questioned as she lay sprawled on her back.

"My dear, we do! This game is also called Spin-the-bottle-truth-or-dare-strip-with-firewhiskey-and-Veritaserum-included!" Sirius yelled joyfully.

"Lets go with Marauder style." Lucie piped up quietly.

"Okay, first thing's first, everyone come and sit in a circle on the floor." James directed.

"Circle time!" Sirius squealed like an excited four-year-old, James just rolled his eyes.

"So who wants to go first?" James asked the group.

"Ooh, me, me!" Sirius was bouncing in his seat and Lily couldn't help but laugh along with the others at Sirius' eagerness. James handed the bottle to Sirius who spun it happily, it landed on Peter.

"Peter, truth or dare?" He queried, his voice a near whisper.

"Um, truth I guess." Peter stuttered.

"Take the Veritaserum." Remus instructed handing him the bottle, reluctantly Peter took a swig.

"Lets think." Sirius pondered, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "Which teacher would you rather kiss, I mean full on the lips, Minnie or Sprout?"

Peter seemed unable to stop the word that flew from his lips, "Sprout."

"Interesting." Sirius said mysteriously as all around him erupted with laughter. Blushing a deep scarlet Peter spun the bottle which landed on Summer.

"Truth or Dare?" He mumbled.

"Dare." She replied confidently. Subsequently Juliet handed her the bottle of firewhiskey which Summer snatched from her hand and took a small draught from.

"Kiss me." Peter blurted his face- if possible- going an even darker red.

"I'd rather not." Summer blushed, feeling terrible for Peter.

"You know the rule." Sirius grinned, Summer scowled at him and took her sock off. "Aw, spoil sport." he moaned. Summer ignored him and took the bottle and spun it, it landed on Juliet.

"Julie, truth or dare?"

"Truth." Juliet answered taking the Veritaserum and sipping it.

"What is your biggest secret?" Juliet stiffened before murmuring,

"I suffer from a nightmare. I'm not telling any more, you didn't ask for details." Normally everybody would have pushed her for the finest details but seeing her frozen face and her trembling fingers nobody did.

"Your turn Julie." Lucie's soft voice broke the tension in the room, Juliet gave herself a little shake and took the bottle in hand. When she spun it it landed on Sirius, he grinned,

"Ask away sweetheart."

"Truth or Dare?" She asked, her voice still shaking.

"Truth, I can't be bothered to move and I have a feeling one more shot of firewhiskey will not bode well with me." With that brief explanation Sirius beckoned for the Veritaserum to be passed to him and took a gulp.

"Do you still want to go out with me?" Juliet whispered, Lily gasped, she knew Juliet and Sirius hadn't been as close as last year but she never suspected Juliet would feel insecure enough to ask that question.

"No, I am in love with someone else." Sirius answered before he could even try to stop the words which came from his mouth. Juliet nodded, tears flooding her eyes. Slowly she stood, Sirius tried to stand, he tried to apologise but she pushed him to the floor,

"I hate you! We're over." She spat at him. He stared after her as she fled from the common room,

"Julie!" He called as she was about to leave. "I'm sorry." he said pathetically.

"I don't want to hear it." She sobbed Lucie got up ran out of the common room to comfort her heart broken friend.

Lily heard a faint honk from James' room and knew Elvendork was calling mournfully for his master to feed him.

**OK, last time I asked for 20 reviews, but I only have six reviewers and 13 reviews. Fine, as long as anybody who reads this tells me they are and that they are enjoying it I will continue, but how about trying to get 20 reviews this time? What do you say? A team effort. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I enjoyed the seal references that a few of you requested. Please can you check out my other story His Secret? **

**I hope you enjoyed and until next time,**

**LunaBeth!**

**P.S- Thanks to those who answered the question in the last chapter! It did help me.**


	4. Homework Help and Arguments

Buttlyn- *****stares at the review*** **Really? Honestly? Are you sure? Thank you so much! That means so much to me! Thank you!

Emmy Potter- Thanks for the review and I definitely will! Thanks again! :)

Ashley – Thank you so much, that was such an amazing review and you seem so nice. Of course I am going to write more :) and Really? That is so kind! I do not want to upset my reviewers and you will certainly get more in the way of Sirius love! Thank you! And for the Lily Potter review, thank you so much first :D but I was going to talk to my beta about putting it on hold for now because I have always thought it was the worst out of my stories I am currently working on and I want more time to work on this story, Tale of the Deer and an original story I am writing. But I will definitely take your review into consideration, thank you.

And hey we're almost there! As I am writing this I have 19, so one more to go. Thank You!

Over the next few day Lily had no idea what to do with herself, one part of her the part loyal to her friends wanted to slap Sirius every time she saw him – which Juliet tended to do on numerous occasions – but the rational part of her always said in a small voice in the back of her mind, _better to know the truth now than continue and get hurt worse later on. She did after all ask him._

So, unsure on what to do, Lily just focused on her studies. Yet a little hostility towards Black was expected.

It was Monday evening when Lily next saw all the Marauders again, and unfortunately for her it was in the Heads Common Room. The four boys came in quite quietly for them and as they settled themselves Lily couldn't help but notice that Sirius seemed somewhat distracted.

"Hey Lily, is it all right if we all study here tonight? The library is full of kids serving detention, you know the third years had that day on strike? Yeah, it was them." James asked with a grin, remembering fondly the teachers panic that the third years had all disappeared over night.

"Don't make too much noise." Lily replied, shooting a cold look at Black, who didn't even bother to retaliate. Lily felt her forehead crease a tiny bit, it was unlike Sirius to ever ignore his chances of teasing somebody. Overall the bys were relatively quiet, they asked for James' help for Transfiguration homework in whispers so not to disturb her. Finally, after watching Remus struggle over one concept of the Potions homework Lily made her way over to help.

"What are you stuck on?" she asked, pulling up a chair beside him and ignoring the grateful look in his chocolate brown eyes.

"This bit here, it says in the textbook that you need to add three newt eyes and it asks why don't you just add two as it would get the same effect." Remus' eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"Right then, first go back to the basics of the potion. What ingredients are you using?" Lily began and Remus went on to list the properties of each ingredient. "So know, what isn't in that potion?"

"Nothing, everything is in it." Remus looked even more confused as she continued to explain.

"Yes, that's right. That means the newt eyes are not something which will change the effect of a potion, just something that will make it more practical." Lily explained and Remus' expression cleared a bit. "What other potions have we used newt eyes in?" Remus' face suddenly lit up.

"Ones that have to be heated to be served!" he exclaimed. "So that means that the newt eyes are to stop it curdling when you re-heat the potion."

"Yes, well done." Lily laughed at the glee on his face.

"Thank you so much." he grinned, but just as he finished writing it down Sirius dropped his quill onto Remus' work.

"I'm sorry." He muttered, picking his quill back up with his other hand, leaving a large inky blob in the middle of Remus' essay.

"You just don't care, do you?" Lily snarled. "Now, Remus will have to write that all over again, and it is all your fault." she spat venomously, not noticing Sirius flinch at those words. "You don't care about anybody else, you broke Juliet's heart, now you have gone and ruined Remus' essay which had probably taken him hours to write."

"Lily." James' voice was a growl.

"Lily I don't-"

"Of course you care!" Lily's voice was rising to a shout know, her legendary temper taking hold. "He just carelessly dropped his quill onto your essay, of course he meant to do it! There is no reason for him to have done it, it was just out of spite." Lily finished breathlessly but James' face was angry.

"Lily, shut up, OK, just shut up! You don't know anything! How can you think yourself so fair and good when you only know half the story? That's what my mum says anyway and you are constantly doing it."

"What about Severus then?" Lily shouted back, both of them rising to their feet.

"I made that mistake in first year and never realised it, and whenever I vowed to myself to stop he just kept on. Have you ever considered anybody other than yourself?" James' tone was loud and harsh and Lily took a step backwards. Nobody said anything. You could see in Remus and Peter's faces they agreed, Sirius just stared blankly at the table. Not knowing what else to do, Lily ran up to her bedroom. Burying her face in her pillow she cried herself to sleep that night.

**A/N – Sorry it's really short guys. I just wanted to get that argument across as clearly as possible, make it the centre of your attention. I know I am not a good updater, but honestly reviews do help spur me on to write more quickly.**

**Hufflepuff hugs,**

**LunaBeth!**


	5. I Am Still Not Going Out With You

It had been two days since the argument and Lily couldn't help but notice the Marauders were avoiding her; even James tried to distance himself.

"And yesterday he was stuck on his potions homework, so I offered to help him, and do you know what he did?" Summer opened her mouth to guess. Lily however got there first, "He just glared at me! Can you believe the nerve." Lily seethed, a slight growl in her throat.

"Lily. Calm. Down." Summer grabbed Lily's shoulders and held them tight to stop her pacing.

"But-"

"Lily, just weeks ago you were complaining he wouldn't leave you alone." Summer sighed.

"Yes," Lily said, prolonging the 's'. "But now I'm not, am I? I want to know why they're all so secretive. Remus has been acting weird too, he's really pale and snappy." Lily pondered.

"Maybe it's his 'time of the month'." Summer joked. Lily just scowled.

"Yes, Summer, of course. Because the boy Lucie has a huge crush on is obviously a girl." Lily rolled her eyes, flopping onto the sofa with an over exaggerated sigh.

"Lily, just talk to him." Summer looked into Lily's eyes, they were full of worry, her eyebrows scrunched up as they always do when she was concerned.

"But what if he doesn't want talk to me?" Lily whispered back.

"So what? You are Lily Evans!" Summer smiled as she saw the fire dance in the emerald eyes. "Go." she prodded Lily in the small of the back, towards the Fat Lady's portrait. Lily gave a thankful smile and walked out, her head held high.

{~~~*~~~}

"Mate, if she asks, just tell her. Please." Sirius was sat on a lone armchair, his legs drawn up to his chest, his chin resting on his knees, his eyes watching James who lounged on the sofa of the Heads Common Room.

"She has to choose now doesn't she, what with Moony and his furry little problem and you and Juliet and mum and dad." he adds the last comment quietly, as if to himself.

"Prongs they'll be fine. The Healer said it was a common illness for people their age and they were strong and they can fight it." Sirius looked at James, his head tilted in the same way as a dog tilts it's as it looks at you.

"What if they cant?" James whispers hoarsely. "They cant leave me like this, I'm a mess." he croaked. Sirius gave his bark-like laugh, but somehow it was missing all the sense of humour.

"You, my dear Prongs, are not a mess. You will never be a mess. Ever. I will solemnly swear on that. The only one of us who will ever be a mess is me, because at least then I will be a hot mess, you, my dear Prongsy, would be an awfully horrible mess. They will be fine, you will be fine, I will be fine, Moony will be fine, heck even Wormtail will be fine. We will all be fine, and don't let Lily Evans tell you anything different." Sirius declared.

"Merlin Paddy, I never thought you were one for inspirational speeches." James chocked, grinning in spite of himself.

"It is one of my many talents." Sirius said modestly, flicking his hair behind his shoulder. Both the boys burst out laughing, the heavy burdens on their chests lightening at this simple action.

{~~~*~~~}

_I will ask him tonight _Lily thought to herself, _yes, I will give him a another day to explain himself before I confront him._ With that thought in mind Lily walked slowly to her dorm, ignoring the two boys laughing together on the sofa.

Opening the door Lily peered in and saw Autumn perched on the wooden headrest of her bed, a letter tied to her leg. Nervously Lily took a deep, shaky breath and approached the owl, calmly taking the letter from her leg. Slowly Lily uncurled the thin muggle paper. It read,

_Dearest Lily,_

_We have talked to Petunia about it, and we are sorry to say that nothing can stop her. We tried our best, but all we have got is a court case on Halloween night. We are so sorry darling, there is nothing more we can do._

_All our love,_

_Mum and Dad xxxxxx _

Staring at the letter Lily couldn't decide whether to be happy or sad; her parents still loved her, but they couldn't change Petunia's mind, she had a court case, but it was Halloween_ – _her unlucky day.

Emotions flying inside her Lily sat on the edge of the bed, re-reading the letter over and over again, desperately trying to get some secret message that Petunia wasn't angry with her – that this was all a joke. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't find it.

{~~~*~~~}

In truth the boys didn't even notice Lily enter, but once they heard the door slam they knew she was here.

"Why don't we go see if Moony's ready for tonight." James suggested.

"Yeah, you get the map then we can plan where we are going tonight too." Sirius agreed.

After James had found the map they left the common room and began wandering the corridors, they came to a sudden halt when they heard a soft weeping from around the corner, it was coupled with cruel teasing laughs. Quickly grabbing their wands from their pockets Sirius and James skidded around the corner. On the floor sat a shivering first year Hufflepuff, a dark bruise blooming on her face and a bleeding cut on her lip to match her bloody nose, which looked suspiciously like it was broken. James watched the running backs of those retreating from the scene, recognising them as some seventh year Slytherins – Snivellus and his Death Eater buddies. Refraining from throwing hexes after them James hurried over to the Hufflepuff who began sobbing in earnest now the Slytherins had left.

"Are you OK?" he asked, the girl looked up at James, she had dark greenish brown eyes that were open wide, staring into James' hazel eyes. She shook her head, her eyes filling with more tears. "Shhh," James tried to comfort her as Sirius stood back, looking awkward. "My name's James, I'm the Head Boy and it's alright, I'll look after you now." The girl glanced at Sirius then averted her eyes very quickly. Seeing this James said, "And that's Sirius, he is going to go and tell Professor McGonagall what happened. You know who it was right?" James added in an undertone to Sirius.

"Yes." Sirius replied promptly then turned on his heel and walked away.

"OK, so now you know me, and you know everything's going to be alright will you tell me your name?" James' voice was soft and comforting.

"Emily." She whispered.

"That's a pretty name now isn't it?" James smiled, trying to distract her from the pain. "How about we get you to the hospital wing then." James flashed her another smile as he stood up, taking her hand and helping her stand. One hand around she small hand and the other on her back James lead her to the hospital wing.

"Madame Pomfrey?" James called as they got to the Hospital Wing, he felt Emily clench her small hand, he turned and crouched in front of her. "Hey, it's alright." he said, brushing a strand of hair from her eyes. "If you want I can stay, I promise it wont hurt."

"Can you stay?" Emily queried shyly.

"Of course." James gave the little hand an extra squeeze for encouragement as Madame Pomfrey came bustling over to them.

"James? Again? You are Head Boy now, you need to be more careful." she scolded but James just laughed and shook his head.

"Nope, you may not believe it but today I am only here as an escort. This is Emily, Sirius and I found her in the corridor with Snape and his friends." James' face darkened towards the end of the sentence but Madame Pomfrey merely frowned before hiding it with a warm smile and turning to the girl.

Soon Emily had been treated and James took her back to the entrance of the Hufflepuff Common Room. Leaving her to open the entrance on her own.

"Bye, Emily." He said as he walked away.

"Bye James." her soft voice came floating down the corridor before she disappeared through the entrance.

"Time to get Moony's werewolf on." James muttered to himself, before running to join the other Marauders in the Gryffindor common room – well not before being told off by Slughorn for running in the corridor.

{~~~*~~~}

It was full moon and Lily stared out of the window at the velvet sky, watching the smattering of stars twinkle. She smiled remembering how she used to go camping as a child, they'd stay out and her mother would have one arm around her and the other around Petunia. Before she knew this world. Before Petunia turned on her. Before she became a freak, she added bitterly to herself. She couldn't help but wonder what her life would be like if she wasn't a witch. _I'd be in a muggle school, I'd have muggle friends, there would be no war, no Voldemort, no pure-blood prejudices. Everything would be fun and games, she might even go on double dates with Petunia and Vernon – _who Lily had never met but was apparently extremely handsome and heir to a drilling company owned by his dad. _No. _Lily told herself, _I wouldn't give up my magic and friends just to be normal. I couldn't do that. _

Her mind was so full of _What Ifs _that she didn't even remember her plan to confront James that night.

{~~~*~~~}

Lily awoke with a large yawn, and stretched her arms, blinking from the sunlight streaming in. James. Lily was going to confront him last night, Summer would kill her if she didn't. So it was with that thought in mind that Lily marched over to James' room and knocked loudly on the door – not the thought of her knotted hair pulled back in a scruffy ponytail, or the large t-shirt that reached halfway down her thighs and slipped off one shoulder which she wore for pyjamas.

There was no answer. Sighing, Lily gave the door a push, only to reveal a bed with no James in it, he wasn't there. Scowling deeply Lily turned to leave the room, but something caught her eye; a muggle camera. Treading carefully, as to not step on anything sharp which could penetrate the soft skin of her bare feet, Lily walked over to it. Picking it up Lily flicked through the pictures on it, they were expertly taken, and as Lily flicked through the photos there was one which caught her eye. It was her with her family on the station, her parents were looking around awe-struck through the rain and she was brushing her soaking wet hair out of her eyes, a smile gracing her face. Once again Lily felt that smile upon her face as she flicked through the other pictures, some of people and some of landscapes – all looked as if they were taken by an expert photographer. Lily placed the camera down carefully and looked around the room. Above the bed there were more photographs, some magical some left as muggle pictures, it had an amazing effect. On the desk there were piles of parchment, all covered in drawings. It took a minute for Lily to realise they were all drawn by James.

They were beautiful, perfect, brilliant, they made Lily speechless. There was on of a stag, dog, wolf and rat – a strange combination but still wonderful. There was one of a lily, Lily's smile grew at this, lilies were her favourite flowers. She continued looking through them until she reached ones of people, the first was Sirius. He had what looked like tear tracks running down his face, and behind him – like all the others – were lots of tiny words. _Misunderstood. Alone_. Then one which really caught Lily's eye, _Abused. _

"What are you doing?" James was standing in the doorway, he didn't sound angry, just weary. Lily quickly put the drawings down.

"Nothing." she lied.

"What were you looking at?" he asked, he sounded tired, and Lily didn't miss the look of longing directed towards the bed.

"Your camera and drawings." Lily mumbled to her feet. She felt ashamed, she would never normally do this, she'd learnt that lesson from Petunia, but it was all so beautiful.

"What did you see, did you see my drawings of everybody?" he questioned, but Lily heard the real thing he was thinking, _did you see my drawing of Sirius? _

"Yes." Lily forced herself to look into his eyes, the hazel ones met the emerald. She made herself go on. "Was Sirius abused?" her voice no more than a whisper. James sighed, running his hand through his already messy hair, and sitting down on the bed.

"Yes, that's why I got so angry when you shouted. That's why I have been avoiding you, I didn't want to tell, but Padfoot told me to tell you if you asked." James admitted, looking deep into Lily's eyes, seeing the hurt welling up inside them, the hurt of him being angry at her, at being shouted at, at being avoided, but mostly hurt for Sirius.

"Why?" she squeaked.

"Sirius never fitted in with his family, from when he was young he used to ask to go outside and play with the muggle children, he never understood why they were so different, he didn't understand that he should have been like his brother Regulus, he should have hated muggles. Then he became a Gryffindor, the ultimate act, well except for being friends with my family – the blood-traitor Potters." James gave a harsh laugh at this point, his eyes unfocused. "As he was growing up Sirius always stood up for himself, he fought back. He wouldn't take Bellatrix's taunts or teasing. But to his parents that was a bad thing. Lets just say Crucio was the equivalent to a parent's handbook on how to raise children. They tortured him like that for years, Crucio after Crucio, and nobody knew – no, people did know, they just didn't care – nobody cared until he came to us. He has been living with us since the summer before sixth year. And that's why he dropped his quill on Moony's work, the Crucios he has been punished by for years have damaged his nerve system, he can't help it, sometimes he just loses feeling completely in his hands." James finished. Lily just sat there, in shock.

"I didn't know, I'm so sorry, I never knew, I just thought. I am so sorry." Lily kept apologising but James just shook his head,

"No, I shouldn't have shouted, you didn't know. It wasn't your fault." James soothed, standing up and pulling Lily in for a hug, she pushed him away.

"Of course it is my fault!" she exclaimed. "Everything is my fault! Everything has gone wrong since I became a freak." She cried, tears running down her face as she fled the room. James came after her, light on his feet he caught up to her and looked her in the eye.

"You, Lily Evans, are not a freak. You are a talented, kind, beautiful, caring, smart, wonderful girl. And nobody wants you to change that." His voice was so calming Lily just looked back at him and laughed.

"I am still not going out with you."

"I'm wounded." he put a mock pout on, and Lily thought how much better he was as a friend than an annoying enemy. As she admitted this he smiled,

"That's all I ever wanted from you Lily, a chance to show you the real me." he said wisely. Lily smiled.

**A/N – What do you think? Did you expect that? Did you like it? I made it extra long to make up for the last short one. Could I get the reviews up to 30? Please? And also could you check out my original story (just take out the spaces) -**

**http: /www. wattpad. com/ 2719678 -standing- alone**

**Thank you. Please Review!**

**Hufflepuff Hugs,**

**LunaBeth!**


	6. Court Cases Couples and Slap In The Face

Chapter 6

**A/N - I don't swear and I will not swear – hence the use of stars.**

It was Halloween, the day of the court trial. Lily wrung her hands nervously as paced in front of the fire. She glanced at the clock; she had a quarter of an hour to be at Dumbledore's office for a portkey to her parents house. _Should I go now? _She asked herself. _No, I will wait, I don't want to have to wait with Dumbledore._ Just as she began pacing again James entered the common room with Remus.

"Hey Lily, you anxious about court?" He asked sympathetically. Lily threw him a scathing look, before shaking her head.

"I'm sorry James." She apologised. "Hello Remus." Remus gave her a nod of the head and a small smile.

"Do you want to talk about it? How much time do you have to kill?" James said, sitting down on the sofa.

"No and just about ten minutes." Lily replied shortly. James ran his hand through his already messed up hair. "Stop that!" Lily snapped, causing Remus to chuckle lightly; but he stopped as he began victim to Lily's famous glare. Ignoring this James picked up a piece of parchment which had been left on the table and pulled a muggle pencil out of his pocket; whistling quietly he began to draw. Remus began to inspect his fingernails and Lily just continued to wear a hole in the floor.

"Well Remmy and I,"

"Don't call me that."

"As I was saying, Remmy and I have to go. You should probably think about it to." James lay down the pencil and parchment back onto the table. Lily sent one last glare at them to get them on their way, but in all honesty she was rather touched they had come to check on her; she had chucked out all her friends at least half and hour ago and made them swear not to come back. A small smile now playing on her lips she picked up the parchment James had been doodling on. It was a picture of her pacing, smoke steaming out of her ears and her face scrunched up in frustration; below it was a small caption _"You will be fine, don't worry, nobody can refuse Lily Evans what she wants. James" _Lily gave a light chuckle similar to Remus' and walked out of the common room.

{~~*~~}

"Lily." Lily hear this cry as soon as she hit the ground, chipped tea cup still clutched in her hand, and not soon after she felt herself being enveloped into her mother's arms. Relishing in the warmth of the embrace Lily didn't push her away.

"Hello Lily." Came the warm voice of her father.

"Daddy!" She squealed, squirming out of her mother's grip to throw herself onto her father.

"Sure, just ignore the woman who gave birth to you." Lily's mother, Caroline, laughed.

"I'm scared." Lily admitted, looking up into her father's eyes, they were the same green as hers.

"I know, me too." David said back to his daughter, brushing a strand of fiery red hair from her eyes.

"Everything will be fine. There is no case against you except Petunia's wishes." Caroline tried to assure her youngest daughter. Lily nodded.

"So how's school, that Potter boy still troubling you?" Lily cursed inwardly, she had forgotten to mention her friendship with James in her letters. Damn. Her father hated everything Lily had told him about James and she was pretty sure that he wouldn't warm up to him too soon.

"David, don't be so harsh." Lily's mother scolded.

"Actually...James is matured and he's Head Boy and he's being nice and I am friends with him and he's been watching out for me and he's been really kind about the whole Tuney thing." Lily said, very quickly.

"What?" Her father bellowed, and Lily flinched. "He does one kind thing and you forgive him? Lily you don't understand, he is waiting for you to be at your weakest to take advantage, I won't let that happen to my baby girl." Lily groaned.

"He's not some sort of animal Daddy. Besides, we have agreed to be friends, just friends."

"Oh, Lily, this is excellent!" Caroline gushed, beaming. "I knew you two would end up together, the amounts of flowers and chocolates he sent, oh Lily."

"We're not going out, we're just friends." Lily blushed.

"I should hope so!" David scowled. "You should be having nothing to do with him, or that good for nothing Black and I certainly hope you have not forgiven that Snape boy." Lily's face darkened at the mention of Severus.

"No Daddy, I am never going back to Severus, he has chosen his path and made that much clear to me. But Daddy, don't be so harsh on James and Sirius," David snorted at the name.

"Sirius, what is he, some sort of clown?" He muttered.

"Daddy, James truly has matured and Sirius...not everything is his fault, the way he used to spitefully offer to take girl's books then drop them and not pick them up, that wasn't his fault. He was abused Daddy, his family used the torturing curse on him – the one you get sent to prison for – and it damaged his nerve system, sometimes he just loses all feeling in his hands." David's gaze softened in sadness. "And look what James drew me." Lily ploughed on, pulling the drawing out of her pocket.

"That's amazing." Caroline commented quietly.

"Never the less Lily, be careful. Look after yourself, but if you are sure - I will not say anything against them, I will treat them like any of your other friends." David promised.

"Thank you Daddy."

{~~*~~}

"Lily should be back soon." James said, glancing at his watch.

"She'll be fine." Summer stated confidently. "She always is."

"But if it isn't she'll be crushed." James' voice was full of concern.

"Aww, Jamesie, Lilykins will be fine. Don't worry." Sirius laughed.

"There is nothing against her, I have been studying muggle law." Lucie added, causing Remus to raise his eyebrows in interest.

"That must be hard." He said, impressed. Lucie blushed.

"Not really, I have already studied Wizarding law, it just takes time getting my head around all the new concepts." She mumbled humbly.

"Love-birds." Peter coughed.

"Shut it Pete, just because you've never liked anyone!" Remus snapped, before realising what he'd said. "No, not that, I mean, unless you, no, I mean, never mind." He trailed off, blushing furiously. Lucie went beet red.

"I am going before I throw up." Peter commented snidely, leaving the room hurriedly.

"YES!" Sirius shouted. "Finally! Go Moony!" James snorted.

"Mate, he's got to ask Lucie out and see if she likes him first."

"Of course she likes him." Summer sighed, smiling at Lucie who looked as if she were about to faint.

"Really?" Remus croaked, looking up hopefully. Lucie gave a small shy nod before averting her eyes.

"So, do you want to, like, um, do you want..." Remus said awkwardly.

"Lucie would you like to go out with Moony?" James offered, deciding to help his friend out. Lucie look shocked and tried to get a verbal answer out but it seemed as if she had lost her voice.

"Yes." Summer supplied simply. Now Sirius jumped from his seat, yelling in delight, James and Summer grinned at each other, and Lucie and Remus smiled broadly at each other.

"Now you two love-birds go for a walk and talk about books or something I am trying to worry about Lily like a good friend would." James said, running a hand through his dark hair and sending Summer a pointed glare.

"Yeah and get some snogging in there too!" Sirius smirked enthusiastically.

"Sirius!" Summer scolded.

"Sorry." He muttered, although not looking as if he meant it at all, especially when he began to make kissing faces.

"Besides, James, there is no point worrying about Lily; she will be fine and worrying wouldn't help anyway." Summer explained patiently.

Lucie and Remus stood and, with a moments pause, took each other's hand in their own.

"See you bookworms!" Sirius called after them as they left the library – for the librarian Madame Branson was never here to scold them, she could usually be found in the Three Broomsticks instead, so the Marauders usually adopted this corner as their sanctuary.

"They are so good together!" Summer cooed, smiling after the pair.

"Well it was a matter of time wasn't it?" Sirius yawned, stretching his arms out and folding them behind his head as he reclined in his chair.

"Yeah." James agreed, pulling his camera out of his bag and snapping a photo. "There's one for the wedding album." He grinned as he look at the picture; the silhouettes of Remus and Lucie hand in hand in their natural habitat – the library.

"I love how you do that Prongs, you know capture things at just the right moment." Sirius commented, giving way to another yawn.

"What like this?" James teased, snapping a picture of Sirius mid-yawn. Sirius however just snorted.

"Mature." He sniggered.

"And how Mr. Padfoot would you know anything on that matter? Just a minute ago you seemed like a normal teenage boy, where has my baby gone?" James cried, with mock astonishment.

"On that matter I know absolutely nothing, for I, dear Mr Prongs, take time to mature, like wine, you need to wait decades for the best result."

"Lily's back!" Summer exclaimed, cutting short the Marauder's playful banter.

"How did it go?" The three of them asked in unison.

"Brilliantly! They could find no case against me and were confused as to why the whole matter had been raised in the first place, Petunia cannot disown me." Lily laughed with joy, pulling them all into a hug. First Summer, leaving James and Sirius to have a very "manly" hug, then Sirius, giving James time to give Summer a light, joyful embrace, then James, obviously leaving Sirius and Summer to have a hug, this however was not at light as Summer and James' had been; Sirius pulled her tight and she melted into his warmth.

"You b***h!" The shout resounded around the library, leaving first years who had been pouring over their transfiguration homework to watch the scene wide-eyed. Summer quickly scrambled out of Sirius' arms. For it was Juliet, she had been spying on them. Summer opened her mouth to say something, but Juliet placed a well aimed slap across her face.

"Hey!" Sirius shouted indignantly. And Lily tried to hurl herself forwards; furious that someone had slapped her best friend, especially as that someone was Juliet – one of her closest friends – but James held her back.

"How dare you steal my boyfriend! How dare you! I thought you were my friend, but you are just a cold-hearted slut!" Juliet screamed.

"Wh-" Summer stammered, clutching her cheek.

"You know what, I hate you, I hate you for stealing my boyfriend, I hate Lucie for being so inconsiderate and getting a boyfriend just after I lost mine. Surely my lost relationship is more important than her getting a new one, and I hate you Lily! I hate you for everything – you brought Summer into this group _I _ was your best friend before her! _I _was the most important! _I _was the one to first go down to the hall with you, _I _was the one to first accept Severus as your friend. _I _should be the one with the boy, the one with you as my best friend, the one with the perfect life! _I _shouldn't be the one that has to make out with boys to get noticed, the one whose best friend gets a boyfriend as soon as I lose mine, the one how is terrified to go to sleep at night, the one who's parents blame her for not being able to have another child. I should have your life Summer! Don't you understand?" Juliet cried almost in tears.

"Perfect family?" Summer asked, her voice a low menacing whisper. "Perfect family?" She spat again. "I am adopted Juliet."

"So, you were adopted into the perfect family – it doesn't matter whether they are blood or not."

"No, no it doesn't. What does matter is why, why I was adopted. I had parents Juliet, I still do, I have proper blood parents still out there somewhere. Do you know what that feels like Julie? I have parents who I know didn't want me, I have parents who were famous. More famous than you can imagine." Everybody held their breath, nobody except Lily had heard the tale of Summer's childhood. "And I was their little angel, I was the nations little angel, I was spoilt and pampered and everything an arrogant child could hope to be. But this one day my Daddy didn't get home, this one day my Mother was too drunk to comfort her child, and this one day I lost it. That was the day my magic first appeared, I blew up my toy doll house in a temper tantrum, my mother tried to calm me but I blew up the tea set. I was only five, I didn't understand." Summer said, her voice breaking, everyone just stared at her their mouths agape. "And I didn't understand why my Daddy was called straight home, why they talked about me in hushed tones like some dangerous animal they shouldn't provoke. Neither did I understand why my mother made me look pale and sickly looking with make up, or why a doctor was called in to see me only to be paid to go and tell the world I didn't have long to live. Or why a month later I was put in a coffin and buried in the garden with reports coming from all around the world to witness my burial. I didn't understand that my own parents were faking my death." Summer took a deep breath at this point, swallowing the tears. Sirius tried to say something but she shook her head, looking Juliet in the eye she continued, "For the years after that I hardly ever saw my parents, I was raised by a nanny who had been sworn to secrecy and my parents only ever looked upon me in disappointment and in more than one cases, fright. When my Hogwarts letter arrived, that was the final straw. McGonagall came to explain to me that I was a witch and there and then my parents said that they didn't want me. They forced McGonagall to return to Hogwarts with me in tow – now an abandoned elven year old. Soon enough Dumbledore found me a family, the McKinnons. Marlene is a year older than me and they are half-bloods a perfect family, but I hated it, I hated them and I hated magic, I hated it all for separating me and my parents. So yes, in first year you were Lily's best friend because every time Lily reached out to me I shied away, it was only after the summer following first year that I really got to know Marlene, that was when she talked some sense into me and in second year I asked for Lily's forgiveness. You were Lucie's best friend and so I became Lily's best friend. So do you really want my life Juliet? I would happily trade because I am sure if I had yours I wouldn't screw it up half as much." Summer sneered, knowing that that was a low blow but not caring – she was past caring.

"You b***h!" Juliet repeated before storming out of the library.

**A/N – So, what did you guys think? I hadn't planned to put Summer's story in just yet but there it was. OK, you all know I love you all for reviewing – they make my day! Last time I asked if I could get it up to 30 and I was so pleased I got it up to 33 thank you all so much and thank you for all your kind comments. I think I have replied to all of you but if I haven't please let me know as I value each review greatly. This time do you think we could try for 40? I know it's a big ask but I think you are all very amazing and I know that this story has been put on peoples favourites and been put on story alert by people who haven't reviewed so I am sure that at least 8 people are reading it. Please? **

**Hufflepuff Hugs,**

**LunaBeth!**


	7. Sick

Chapter 7

**A/N - I am writing this sitting on my bed with a 14 week old puppy next to me because she was howling for her older sister how has gone to the vet for a day for an operation so I apologise in advance for any typos.**

**Eleni – Thank you for the review, and don't worry, James and Lily are the main characters (they are my favourite too!) and nothing will change that! **

**Guys! Help! I am almost at Christmas! I don't want to be there yet, it was only just Halloween – if you have any ideas please put them in! Otherwise there would only be 10 – 15 more chapters. I wanted to make this about 30 :( Any ideas please contact me via review or PM.**

Lily groaned as her eyes fluttered open, she had a pounding in her head and everything was to bright and vibrant to look at. Grudgingly, she pulled herself out of bed and towards the shower – shivering violently. Turning up the temperature to scorching hot Lily stepped in. With a groan she leaned her head against the cool shower tiles.

Wrapping a towel around her Lily made her way over to her bed, ignoring how wobbly her legs felt. Quickly she grabbed her uniform and pulled it on haphazardly, drying her hair with a flick of her wand. She examined herself in the mirror - wincing at how pale and sweaty she looked, along with the dark bags under her eyes – before putting a small amount of make up on, trying to hide the bags under her eyes, the last thing she wanted was someone accusing her of being ill and to be sent to the hospital wing when she felt fine. Swinging her school bag on her shoulders Lily made her way down into the common room.

"Hey Li- are you OK?" James asked, his carefree grin quickly turning to an expression of concern.

"I'm fine." Lily croaked, wincing again at her raw throat.

"No, you're not."

"I am!" Lily tried to shout but it only turned into a wheezing cough.

"Come on, sit down." James gently lead her over to the sofa and pushed her down lightly.

"Summer needs me and I have so much work, James, I do not have time for this!" Lily protested.

"No, shhhh, it's bad for your throat. Would you rather stay here or go to the hospital wing?" James asked seriously, with one raised eyebrow.

"Here." Lily admitted quietly.

"OK then, well you will listen to me. You are sick, Summer will be fine, she has Lucie and the Marauders to protect her. And for work I will sort that out."

"But-"

"No buts. You're temperature is," James paused to wave his wand over Lily's forehead. "one hundred and four degrees Fahrenheit, Lily, that's really bad. Maybe I should get Madame Pomfery." James said, running his hand through his hair anxiously.

"No." Lily pleaded desperately.

"OK." James gave in, feeling sorry for Lily. "What hurts?"

"You'd be more accurate if you asked me to list what doesn't hurt." Lily snorted, flinching in pain.

"Let's start at your throat, open wide." James demanded, and Lily, a little reluctantly, obeyed.

"It's all inflamed." James stated. "I don't know any medical spells so you're going have to put up with muggle methods." Lily nodded willingly, that was one of the reasons she hated the hospital wing – she wasn't used to their methods, and the prospect of people sticking their wands everywhere and anywhere to make her better unnerved her.

"Chicken soup for lunch." James murmured, taking a notepad out of his pocket making a list. "Cold flannel for temperature, warm duvet in front of the fire for shivering."

"Yes doc." Lily smirked.

"Do you want me to give you a medical subscription?" James teased, Lily shook her head quickly before scrunching her face up in pain.

"OK, I need to go to lessons, but I will send a House Elf with your breakfast and visit you between lessons, you try to get some rest." James said, summon all the items her mentioned earlier. "And no getting up." He gave her a stern look before heading out of the common room. Lily sighed contentedly, she hated to admit it but she liked having James look after her. Snuggling into the warm duvet she drifted off into a fevered sleep.

{~~*~~}

"I HATE HER!" Came the shout of who Lily recognised as Summer.

"Shhh...you'll wake Lily." James hushed.

"Since when did you become Madame Pomfrey." Someone teased.

"Shut it Padfoot." So Sirius here, Lily groaned, there was no point trying to get back to sleep with him around. Shyly she lifted her head out of the blanket.

"Merlin Lily, you look terrible." Summer said. Lily sent her a glare, her throat too sore to speak but then she decided she'd try it anyway.

"What happened with Juliet." She whispered rawly. James gave her his notepad.

"Write in there instead, it will prevent you aggravating your throat any more." He explained.

_Thanks. _She scribbled.

"Well the fat b-"

_Don't sink to her level! _Lily scribbled and waved it in front of James' face until he read it aloud.

"OK then she," Summer spat. "Is off with Alice, no doubt telling her lies, Alice would be here friend after she said that even if you imperioed her!" Summer exclaimed.

_No, Alice is a nice person. She knows she is not involved in this and she wont get involved – she's too kind. If you went to her, then she would treat you the same. _Lily wrote, defending the girl. She had never been close to Alice but she'd always been there if Lily needed someone to rant about Potter to or a shoulder to cry on, she was the motherly figure of the seventh year girls; between her and Lily they made sure all issues were sorted before they started and everybody had someone there for them.

"Yeah, but that Jaclyn! She's so girl and oooohhh PARTY! I hate her!" Summer growled.

_You mean, she's so like Juliet? _Lily wrote and Sirius and James sniggered.

"YES! She's so annoying, the way she twirls her hair and stares off into space." Summer stood up in frustration.

_Summer, you were talking to her yesterday. You were fine with her then. _

"But she hadn't sided with Juliet then." She said stubbornly.

_You are being immature, just listen...or read...whatever. You shouldn't let Julie get to you like this. You just go about your life like normal and maybe she'll realise what she's missing and come back and apologise. _Lily wrote, patiently.

"OK, I'm sorry Lily, coming to you like this when you're ill. I know it isn't fair, but I just couldn't take it any more, and Juliet is being horrible to Luce as well. She made her cry in the Great Hall, but Remus is looking after her. And, well, I wanted someone to look after me." Summer admitted quietly.

"I'll look after you." Sirius smirked.

"Shut it!" Summer scolded, flouncing out of the room. Sirius followed, apologising.

_They soooo like each other! _Lily wrote as she smiled smugly.

"It's obvious isn't it?" James sniggered, and together they made little plots to get the pair together. James mainly did it to keep Lily distracted but Lily seemed to really want to get them together – something James decided to keep in mind.

**A/N – I Know this was a short chapter but I really want to fill out the time between now and Christmas for them, but pleaseeee if you have any ideas contact me! I don't want it to be this short! Thank you again for all your kind reviews. Oh and if you want me to read any of your stories and review just leave me a note (review or PM) as long as it is rated T or under and if it is something I am interested in (basically anything except Drarry or Dramione) and not too long to catch up (10 chapters or over).**

**Hufflepuff Hugs**

**LunaBeth**

**-ps- sorry again for such a short chapter :(**

**-pps- VERY IMPORTANT! WishingOnSomeStars owns Jaclyn! I DO NOT! Please check out her stories =D**


	8. This Is Going To Be The Best Prank EVER!

**Chapter 8**

"It's time for a prank!" Sirius declared as the four Marauders sat around the Head's Common room fireplace.

"Oh dear Merlin." Lupin moaned, putting his head in his heads.

"Cheer up Moonster, just some harmless little joke." James wheedled.

"Fine, as long as it really is harmless." Remus agreed grudgingly, but the others could already see the mischievous smirk coming into play.

"I-I'm not sure that it's a good idea." Peter stammered.

"Merlin Pete, since when where you the voice of reason." Sirius exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air.

"Yeah Pete, Moony agrees so we should do it."

"But, James, you're Head Boy now, what if we get caught?" Peter tried desperately.

"Pete, what's up? I've been playing the good boy all year, let's have some fun. And I solemnly swear no one will get hurt." James frowned, watching Peter seriously.

"Lily though, what will she think, she'll never forgive you!" Peter squealed, sounding more and more like his animagus rat.

"Wormtail, I seriously-"

"Siriusly!" Sirius yelled, interrupting James who just rolled his eyes at him.

"I seriously doubt Lily would hold it against me, I mean with all that's going on I should be allowed to let off some steam, you know." James said, jumping up and beginning to pace in front of the fire.

"I'm not sure." Peter piped slyly.

"Shut it Pete." Sirius growled, looking at James who was running his hands through his hair nervously.

"Prongs, Wormtail's -"

"Wormtail's what?" Lily asked cheerfully, full recovered from her bout of illness a week earlier.

"Nothing, nothing." Sirius said airily.

"I'm wrong about warning them not to do a prank." Peter informed her casing Sirius to give him a death glare.

"What sort of prank?" Lily narrowed her eyes at the four Marauders.

"Don't worry, I am making sure it's harmless." Remus assured her.

"Well...if Remus makes sure it's harmless I suppose it would take some of the pressure of revision." Lily agreed thoughtfully.

"So we can do it?" Sirius begged, looking like a pleading puppy.

"Of course you can." Lily laughed. "Now I better go stop Summer and Juliet from scratching each other's eyes out."

"As much fun as that sounds, we will be planning a prank." James grinned, waving Lily out of the common room.

"Bye." She called over her shoulder.

"See Wormy, nothing to worry about." James grinned.

"Um...yeah, today, I, um, can't I have, um, I'm busy bye." Wormtail excused himself, scooting out the doorway.

"Something is going on with him." Remus frowned, concern written all over his face.

"Once I was sure I saw him talking to Snivellus." Sirius muttered darkly.

"Come on guys I want to prank, we can worry about Wormy later." James said, not believing Sirius; Wormtail would never betray them like that.

"Lets get started then." James said ominously before ruining the effect with a wiggle of his eyebrows. "Remember though I am Head Boy now." he reminded them sternly.

I'm glad your duties are so important to you," Remus complimented, impressed by James' maturity.

"Ah, poor little Moony, so naive, so young, so innocent," James sighed sadly.

"I truly hate to corrupt him," Sirius shook his head in misery.

"Almost as much as I hate having to tell him," James wiped a mock tear from his eye.

"It's for the best Prongsie old pal,"

"Moony, dear, you have no idea how hard this is on us," James started softly.

"No idea," Sirius echoed mournfully.

"But when in Marauder mode it is my duty to my fellow members to respect them and gain their respect, thus meaning I shall have to use my seat of power to an advantage in the Marauder eyes," James informed him.

"Of course Prongs, I expected nothing less," Remus nodded.

"Let's get working boys," Sirius smiled.

? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ

"Her and prissy little Jaclyn," Summer growled under her breath to Lucie who didn't even look up from her book.

"Lily!" Lucie exclaimed when she saw Lily hurrying into the common room.

"Hey Luce, you alright? I just passed all the boys in my common room so be careful they said they were planning a prank," Lily smiled.

"I hope it's on Juliet," Summer snorted under her breath.

"It's harmless though," Lily assured the horrified Lucie and frowned at the snarling Summer who murmured,

"Dammit," quietly at hearing this news. "

So I said go for it, it wouldn't hurt to have a few laughs would it."

"It would hurt her she can't laugh it would break her ice heart," Summer commented snidely. Lily however ignored her.

"I'm going to the library to read through some of the details James and I have planned for the Christmas Ball, want to come?" Lily offered.

"Yeah alright," Lucie replied offhandedly but in her eyes Lily could see her thanking her profusely.

"Summer?" Lily asked just as Juliet walked passed.

"No thanks I'm going to go find Sirius and give him a great huge snog!" Summer exclaimed, shouting the last three words. Juliet didn't look back, she just stalked haughtily out of he room.

"Summer, you went too far," Lily said in a low voice.

"I don't care! I mean who does care if I do want to go kiss Sirius, not her because she is so obviously over him!" Summer yelled, angrily storming out of the room.

"Whoa, who says only the Marauders get anything interesting to happen in Gryffindor?" A petite girl with short dark curls swarming around her face came and collapsed into the chair next to Lily and Lucie.

"Hi Mary," Lily smirked at her. A year below Lily, Mary was quiet but not shy and talked to Lily on several occasions with several of her problems, she now saw her as her mentor and role model. Lily was fond of the girl and always enjoyed helping her whether it was homework, boy troubles or even her home life, Lily was there for her.

"Hi Lily, Lucie. So what have you got there?" Mary asked Lily, indicating the plans on the table.

"Seventh year Christmas Ball, you'll have to wait until next year shorty," Lily teased, and Mary put on an indignant face.

"I am not short! Just small," she protested.

"Calm down, I was only kidding," Lily laughed.

"I wonder what the prank will be," Lucie said absent-mindedly.

"Something funny if it's the Marauders, I'll miss them next year," Mary sighed.

"Aw, you'll finally just have to get over your little crush on James," Lily smiled, poking Mary in the ribs.

"Just because you didn't like him," Mary scowled, blushing furiously.

"Well we're friends now," Lily said proudly.

"Oh ho, just friends? Because those Heads Dorms are a great place to keep a secret," Mary smirked.

"And you should know, I saw you last year with that Hufflepuff Head Boy, what was his name again?" Lily shot back.

"It was Philip Abbott for your information and we are not even going there," Mary replied before seeing Lily's small scowl which made her realise she had been winded up...again.

? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ

"This is going to be the best prank Hogwarts has ever seen!" Sirius yelled in delight.

**A/N – I have re-typed this and hope it has helped the format back to normal XD**

**Thank you for reading, please leave a review, sorry about the horribly long A/N,** **Hufflepuff Hugs,** **LunaBeth!**


	9. Pranks, Clones and Letters

**Chapter 9**

**Dedicated to Weasley-and-Proud**

"_This is going to be the best prank Hogwarts has ever seen!" Sirius yelled in delight._ ? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ? ﾟﾒﾘ "So everything is in place?" James asked Remus for what seemed like the hundredth time. "Yes we're set." Remus reminded him. The three marauders were now sitting in the great hall, the usual breakfast banter reverberating quietly around the peaceful hall. "I thought you were doing a prank today?" Lily sneaked in between Remus and a third year who slid up the bench to make room for the head girl and her friends. "Call this the calm before the storm." Remus warned as Sirius made shushing noises and waved his arms frantically to quieten them. "Hey Luce." Remus greeted, as his girlfriend slipped onto his other side. "Hi." She answered in a whisper, looking curiously at Sirius. Then with only a small flick of James' wrist there was a small pop. At first nothing happened. Then...the Great Hall exploded. Students flung their arms over their heads as smoke filled the room. Coughing prefects tried to keep calm. The chaos reigned for only a minute then the smoke dispersed. Pupils looked around in confusion, then slowly, looks of horror crossed the Slytherin's faces. Everything in the room which had even a tiny splotch of green on had become invisible. Leaving, of course, the Slytherin's in their underwear – and, for the unfortunate few which had chosen to wear green underwear, even less. The Slytherin's looked to the Staff Table for support, for some sort of help – but there was none, there was only a table full of confused looking toddlers. The toddler which was presumably Professor McGonagall gave an odd sort of gurgling shriek. The baby Dumbledore however, just sat there, a bemused expression in his twinkling eyes. "I thought you said no-one would get hurt!" Lily yelled hysterically, running up to the staff table – ignoring the barely dressed Slytherin's. "Don't worry Lily-Flower, the only thing that is hurt is their pride." Sirius laughed. "THIS IS NOT FUNNY!" She screamed. "I beg to differ." Sirius snorted. "Look, Lils, don't worry – After a day they will go back to their normal selves with no memory of this day." James comforted. "BUT WHAT IF THEY DON'T!" Lily shouted, causing the baby Professor Sprout to began to cry. Lily looked at the Marauders, horror stricken. What should she do? Should she comfort them? She did a bit of baby-sitting in the summer holidays, but these were her Professors. Remus watched her, before saying awkwardly, "I think you should pick her up." Lily bit her lip but did as Remus said. "Shush, it's all right, I've got you now." She comforted the crying toddler. Professor Sprout looked up at Lily, dark blue eyes wide and tear filled and blonde ringlets curtaining her face. "She's so pretty." James breathed, watching Lily with bated breath. "Mate, lay off the crazy stalker thing – it doesn't work, I mean look at Snivellus." Sirius pointed in the direction of the Slytherin table; towards Snape who was gazing avidly at Lily, oblivious to the fact he was only clad in a pair of black silk boxers. "I am nothing like that filthy mouther, greasy haired, death eater. I would never have hurt Lily like he did." James spat. "I know, so lay off the crazy stalker thing." Sirius clapped a hand on James' back before turning to Remus. "Lets get this show on the house." He said enthusiastically. "The road, Sirius, the road." Remus sighed. "What about the road?" "The saying is, lets get this show on the road, not house." "Same difference." Sirius shrugged. For the rest of the day the Hogwarts students wandered around the castle freely. Slytherins searched frantically through their wardrobes looking for something that did not contain the colour green. At lunch it almost seemed as if all the pranks had been played – the professors sat with the prefects and Lily taking turns to look after them, James offered to help but Lily told him to stay away in case he tried to prank them while they were vulnerable. However, Lily knew she wasn't mad at James, everyone deserved a day off and with all the pranks and moving doorways which the Marauders had planted Summer and Juliet hadn't had an argument all day. Lily came out of the bathroom to go to watch the professors but what met her was something even more disturbing than her professors as toddlers; it was herself. Lily gave a shriek and slammed the bathroom door. On the other side of that wall was her clone. It must be the marauders doing, Lily realised and slowly, taking a deep breath she peered around the door. Sure enough, peering back at her were two large, glittering, emerald green eyes. "Hello?" Lily whispered. The clone did not reply. "Well, um, this is awkward..." Lily trailed off, looking around the room in despair. Then she heard a loud mourning cry from Elvendork room – yes he has his own room now. Lily grabbed this chance as an escape route and dropped her bag before running to the seals icy cold room. "Hey Dorky, what's the matter?" Lily asked kindly, she hated to admit it but she'd grown a soft spot for the seal over these past months. The seal looked into the corner of the room fearfully in response. "It's all right Dorky, it's just a clone. It wont hurt you, he can be your friend for the day." The seal moaned sadly. "Shush, no moaning, he wont steal your fish. You can have double the amount of fish." Lily reasoned, before realising she was _reasoning _with a seal about _fish _and it's _clone_. "Merlin help me." She muttered, scurrying out of the room after summoning a house elf to bring more fish for Elvendork and his friend. Only then did she notice her clone had disappeared...and so had her bag. "Merlin no." "Lily-Flower!" Her day just became a whole lot worse, Sirius Black, responsible for this mess, was calling for her. "Hello Sirius." She muttered through gritted teeth, however funny she might find this inside she certainly wouldn't show it on the outside. "Lily-Flower, have you seen Prongs?" Sirius asked in desperation. This caught Lily's attention. "No why?" She frowned. "He got a letter, it upset him and ran off." Sirius began bouncing from foot to foot. "Well lets go find him." Lily encouraged angrily, and together they ran from the common room on a James hunt. "Hey, it's OK. Shush, it wont hurt you, I can make it go away." James said in a soft voice, he was with Emily the first year Hufflepuff again and she was terrified of her clone. James waved his wand and the clone exploded into a pile of dust. "Thank you." She whispered shyly. "Don't worry." James smiled, although he had to admit, the smile was forced. He didn't want to smile, he wanted to go and run to his room and curl up on his bed, but Emily was upset too. "Bye, I am going to go find Amos Diggory, he's nice." Emily walked slowly down the corridor and James looked thoughtfully after her. He liked Amos, he was a great bloke, they were never best friends but they would always chat and laugh together. But that wasn't the point, the point was Emily had no friends her age. He promised to go to Professor Sprout and talk to her about it tomorrow. With that resolution in mind James walked back to his common room, coming face-to-face with Lily and Sirius as they left the common room. "James!" Sirius cried, his face a picture of relief. "What was that letter, mate? What's up? Is it Mum and Dad?" James ignored him, hiding the wince at the last question. Pushing past them he slammed the door of the bedroom. "James," Sirius shouted through the door, along with a loud pounding. "Is it Mum and Dad? Are they OK? Are they worse?" He asked frantically. "Shut up." James replied in a monotone, grabbing a piece of parchment and drawing a vicious picture, resulting in a gaping whole in the parchment. "Prongs as your surrogate brother I have a right to know what's wrong." Sirius tried. "Eff off." James shouted – except he didn't say eff. **A/N- Ohhh, angry James! I am so sorry for the slow update and especially to Weasley-and-Proud who I promised an update last Sunday, and for the shortness of the chapter. I found the pranks really hard to think of, and in the end I didn't think of them myself, all credit goes to my sister. I got caught up in school, homework and the Hunger Games and just had no inspiration. I am so sorry.** **I would love to hear any ideas, critisim and veiws. Could we possibly get up to 50 reviews? I know there are people out there who read yet don't review but I just want to let you know every review even ones that just simply say "Great!" Because it lets me know I haven't dissapointed and I'm doing my job. And if you think otherwise simply say "Needs work, please include sugar cubes." or whatever you think I need to do to make it better. Please?** **And I have a treat planned for Weasley-and-Proud which I will PM her about and you never know next chapter it could be you! Just review, please!** **Hufflepuff Hugs** **LunaBeth xx**


	10. The Battle of the Brothers

**Chapter 10** **Drame101 – Thank you for the review and I am glad I made it seem believable, I have a lot of drama in my school too and I would be lying if I said none of my inspiration came from that. Thank you again! :)** **Bj – Thank you :)** **Gahhhh! Sorry all, it was my goal to update on Tuesday 31st but I have had a rough time in school with friends and I just wasn't in the mood, and I forgot I was going to go out on Sunday so I had thought I would have plenty of writing time then but I didn't, so I am very sorry! I hope to make it up with this extra long chapter!** **P.S – remember I do not swear so that is the characters talking, I just don't want to make it less realistic with lovely none curse words so I blank them out.** A week had passed and James had hardly ever left his room, he didn't attend lessons, he didn't come to meals and Lily and Sirius were worried about him. *The night James got the letter* "James, James, come on mate open up." It was nearing midnight now and Sirius was sat slouched against James door frame hammering his hand against the wood. No reply. "Prongs, you can't stay in there forever." Sirius tried to reason. No reply. Sirius looked over to Lily enviously, she had fallen asleep just under half an hour ago and Sirius had had the manners enough to carry her over to the sofa...but not into her room - he didn't know what he might see in there. Although many people thought to the contrary, Sirius Black hated going into girls rooms, he had never been in one and didn't plan on changing that any time soon. Then Sirius began to get aggravated, raising his voice to it's loudest he yelled, "James Potter get out here at once and explain your behaviour right away!" Inwardly he cringed at the likeness to Mrs Potter, but he ignored it. No reply. Elvendork came waddling from his room, slowly he made his way over to Lily on the sofa and honked into her ear fondly. "Wha-?" Lily exclaimed, toppling from the sofa. Elvendork gave a few more honks which could have been mistaken for guffaws before waddling away under Lily's furious glare. "Sirius, are you still up?" Lily yawned widely. "Yes." Sirius replied shortly before returning to face the door. "Well you shouldn't be." Lily scolded "Well I am." "Sirius, you need sleep; James probably needs time to himself for now. Think about all the times you need time to yourself, list them now." Lily's voice had turned soft, trying to comfort the distraught boy. "When I do my hair, when I'm with a girl," Sirius faltered. "When I'm upset." He added quietly. "Yes, when you're upset, and James obviously is upset right now, so just give him time." She explained patiently. "You sure?" Sirius asked, shooting a concerned glance back at the firmly shut door. "One hundred percent certain." "Thanks Lily-Flower." "Shut up."Lily growled half-heatedly. "I know you love me really." Sirius teased. "What like James knew I loved him really in our first six years of Hogwarts?" Lily shot back, not realising her mistake. "Aha, so you love him now?" Sirius asked with raised eyebrows. "No he has merely stopped saying that I love him." Lily answered quickly, hiding her blush through her long red hair. "Miss Evans I will not be leaving this." A glint of mischief lit up Sirius' handsome grey eyes. "You will right now though because you are going to sleep, and no, you don't have to go back to your dorm; I will make you a bed on the sofa." Lily said as Sirius opened his mouth to protest. Taking Sirius' silence as a sign of agreement Lily muttered "Good." Before conjuring up a bed for him. "Thank you Lily." Sirius mumbled sleepily as his lids began to close. "For what?" She asked softly. "Looking after James this year, he couldn't have done it if he were Head Boy with another girl." Sirius grinned. "You have no idea how cheesy that sounded." Lily laughed. "That's my job." Sirius yawned before curling into a ball in a dog-like fashion and falling asleep. The next morning Lily pulled Sirius away from the Head's Dorm and to his lessons, luckily the teachers had been restored to their usual selves and they had no evidence against the Marauders so they couldn't even punish them; this would have been an ideal time for Sirius but without James, he couldn't relish in his success – he just accepted it. Remus and Lucie meanwhile were having a great time together, they were always laughing and there was even occasional tentative kisses. Lucie would return from the icy grounds, soaked to the skin, cheeks glowing, teeth chattering and beaming after a walk with Remus. Lily smiled upon the innocent relationship, both of the couple were happier and more carefree than they'd been in a long while. There were still the occasional evenings were Lucie would cry about Juliet but Remus showed her that it wasn't important, he would tell her that so long as she stays the same Juliet would be the one missing out. Summer on the other-hand was, getting more and more out-of-control. Many fights were observed in the Great Hall and Lily could see faults on both sides, in-fact a fight had once got so bad that Hagrid was sent over to separate the two girls. Peter was seeing less and less of the other Marauders, he would disappear for hours at a time – only to be found in the dormitory where they had looked only minutes before. Lily couldn't help but feel suspicious towards the plump, watery-eyed, boy. "Sirius?" Lily asked, the evening after James had stormed into the bedroom. "Yes?" He mumbled from the sofa. "What happened with your parents? Did you really hate them you whole life?" Lily wondered whether she had gone too far, but knew that she would have asked at some point anyway – she was too curious not to. "No; I spent my whole childhood trying to impress them, trying to be the perfect role-model big brother for Regulus. I desperately wanted them to love me, but I wanted to be normal too. I wanted to go to school with the boy down the road, I wanted to play football against the bully from the next street, I wanted to help the homeless girl who lived in the park. I wanted it all so badly, I just wanted my parents to be proud of the friends I chose. One day, I brought a boy back to our house a few weeks before I got my Hogwarts letter and it was then I realised – it's not good to want, you should never want, it leads you nowhere in life except to disappointment. I had had crucios before, a couple for mentioning my friends, for asking why I couldn't play with the normal boys and girls, but I think it was this one which did the most damage. I remember the boy being sent home, I stood in the doorway, my father letting me in no further, my mother just behind him and Regulus staring down through the banister. I asked why he couldn't stay, then, for three hours straight I received crucio after crucio. It was then I decided I was going to be a Gryffindor, I was going to be a blood-tratior but I was going to be them, I didn't want them, I was going to be them." Sirius said the whole speech bitterly, staring into the roaring flames. "Sirius, I shouldn't have mentioned it -" Lily began. "No, at least you have your questions answered now. So tell me a story, a happy one." Sirius decided, watching Lily. Lily laughed, swing her flaming hair out of her eyes. "Once upon a time there were seven dwarfs..." Lily told Sirius the whole story and he began begging for more, in her mind Lily was laughing at the strangeness of the scene, but in her heart she knew she was just trying to give back a childhood the boy sitting opposite her had never had. In the days that followed Sirius and Lily grew closer together, the teachers did not question James' absence; they too seemed to have heard something. This only agitated Sirius more. "I can't stand it any more." He stated. "What?" Lily questioned, looking up from her charms paper. "I am going to talk to him whether he likes it or not." With that Sirius bounded up the stairs and rapped on the door. "James, open it or I will blast it open myself." He ordered. No reply. "Fine!" Sirius pulled out his wand and, before Lily could stop him, all that was left of the door was a few splinters. James was sat on his bed, his hair still messy, his eyes glazed and bloodshot, glaring at a photograph. Lily did not get to see what it was of before it fluttered to the floor when James jumped from the bed. "What did you do that for?" He growled, his voice hoarse. "I want to find out what's wrong with you Prongs, you've been locked in here for a week!" Sirius exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. "I'm fine, the House Elves have been bringing me food and water." James replied curtly. "No. You. Are. Not! What is wrong?" Sirius voice began to rise. "Nothing!" James shouted back, his voice cracking from the sudden strain put on it after a week of silence. "What did the letter say?" Sirius asked in a dangerously calm tone. "Words." James' reply was nonchalant but Lily could almost feel him hurting. "Words about what?" Sirius yelled in exasperation. "Words that I don't want to talk about!" James shouted back. "Then you're an effing idiot!" "Sirius!" Lily cried. "What, Lily? For all I know it could be about Mum and Dad!" Sirius turned to her, anger flowing off him in waves. "They're my Mum and Dad! You have a perfectly healthy Mother and Father who you were stupid enough to run out on." James spat at him. "Why you effing little-" Sirius growled, throwing a punch at James, which he dodged. "You think I liked it there, my life was a perfect little safe Haven? No, Potter, it wasn't it was an effing s**t hole, I thought you would have gathered that." Throwing another punch which caught James square in the face. "I'm sorry," James glowered back sarcastically, blood running freely from his nose. "But my life isn't paradise either, my brother dies, my uncle dies and now I get a letter saying my parents have two years to live but all they ever want to do nowadays is fuss over you!" James now threw a punch himself which Sirius didn't even try to avoid, he just crumpled and lowered himself onto the bed. "It said what?" He whispered hoarsely, ignoring the pain in his chest from James' punch. "The idiots have gone and given themselves two years to live and then they just told me to invite everyone over for a week in the Christmas holidays before the ball." James choked out, he too crumpling on his bed. "Mate," Sirius began. "Shut up." "I'm sorry." "I said SHUT UP!" James bellowed, pushing Sirius to the floor. "BOYS!" Lily shouted over the mess over clamouring fists and violent punches. The two boys looked at her, James still had a bloody nose and Sirius now sported a black eye and swollen lip. "You are being so stupid! Don't you realise that, you should be sticking together, you're brothers so pull yourself together and act like it." She scolded. They both looked down, somehow, from Merlin knows where, Lily had the power to make them both feel ashamed of themselves. "I have practically lost a sister and I wont let it happen to you, so man up and stop fighting." James looked at Sirius. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have taken my anger out at you and I should have told you sooner, you had a right to know." He apologised. "Too right I did. I mean, yeah, me too mate. Sorry." Sirius corrected himself after a pointed glare from Lily. "Good, now James come downstairs you have a lot of homework to catch up on." Lily said, leaving the room with a satisfactory smirk on her face. "Prongs?" Sirius questioned. "Yeah Padfoot?" "Did she just tells us to man up?" "Too right she did." James laughed. **A/N – OMHP! This is seven pages long! The longest chapter I have ever written!** **A special thanks to Weasley-and-Proud, for amazing work on this chapter with me.** **Can I get 60+ reviews? Please?** **Sorry about the format on the last chapter, I don't know how to fix it so I hope this one is fine, please tell me!** **Do you prefer long chapters or short? (Long chapters = longer time to update)**


	11. Of Meetings, Socks and Parents

**Chapter 11**

**A/N- I am writing all of this on my laptop and none on my iPod so if that solves the problem of formatting I will retype the last two chapters. Enjoy! **

The fight between James and Sirius had been completely forgotten and Lily couldn't help but laugh at the boys, they were inseparable – nothing could change that, they needed each other. The contents of the letter however had been anything but forgotten. James seemed on edge all the time, with every owl he would tear the envelope in anxiety to read the content of the letter, each time hoping that it would bring no bad news. Sirius however was dealing with it in a completely different way; he was going back to his old self. There were so many girls on his arms fawning over him that Lily had trouble remembering even their hair colour and house, let alone their names. James took this in his stride, telling Lily that that was how Sirius dealt with stress and not to bother him unless she wanted her arm bitten off. Summer was the one who seemed most disturbed by the back track in Sirius' personality; she would frown whenever he walked in, glaring at the girls who just glared straight back. Lily, of course, knew it was only because she was jealous but Summer was giving herself a really hard time and came to the Head's Dorms many times in tears.

It was nearing the end of the term and Dumbledore had sent both Lily and James letters informing them that there would be a meeting which they were expected to attend with him and the Head's of Houses.

On Tuesday, the day of the meeting James and Lily had a quick lunch together before walking side-by-side to the Headmaster's Office.

"Ah, Miss Evans, Mr Potter, how nice it was of you to join us," Dumbledore greeted, smiling warmly, James resisted the urge to say that they had no choice whether to come or not but he decided not to in case it could be seen as rude.

"Hello Professor," Lily smiled back, taking the seat which she had been indicated to.

"Hello sir," James nodded his head respectfully.

"Is everyone here now? Wonderful, lets begin," Dumbledore waved his hand towards Minerva who stood and began explaining how the school year had gone in the teacher's view. Once she had finished Flitwick added something about how successful the extra-curricular activities had been and how pleased he was with the new first years who had shown a keen interest in learning and all seemed to get along well. For the majority this is what commenced, how the new perfects were and any issues with students, James and Lily sat quietly listening until they were called on by Dumbledore,

"So now here is where the truth comes out, the mystery of our students. Miss Evans, Mr Potter, could you please tell us any issues you have noticed, any arguments – even if they have included you," Dumbledore's eyes twinkled here and both Lily and James flushed slightly, "but we want to know everything, we will not confront anyone unless absolutely necessary and you have our complete confidence – whatever is said in this room shall remain here. Besides, we have been hearing all about you two from our previous Heads, so no need to feel abashed about taking about people," Dumbledore confided, chuckling at the shocked expressions on their faces.

"Lily? I believe that Summer and Juliet would fall into the category of issues our Headmaster would like to hear about," James offered, breaking the awkward silence.

"Oh yes, we have had some concerns about those two, please enlighten us,"

"All right then, well, basically it all kicked off in the library. I had just come back from the court case with Petunia, I saw Remus and Lucie walk out hand in hand and when I came to the library I gave everyone who was there – James; Sirius and Summer – a hug. Then Sirius and Summer hugged, and, well, it looked a bit more than friendly. Juliet was watching and an argument flared from there about Summer stealing her boyfriend – she had just broken up with Sirius not so long ago - and Juliet was saying she wished she had Summer's life and that she didn't deserve to have such a horrible life and that she should be the one with all the things Summer has, that's were it all went downhill," Lily explained patiently.

"Ah, I see, and how are things now?" Dumbledore asked, watching Lily intently over his long fingers.

"They don't speak, the occasional row, the more than occasional swear word," Lily said in an off-hand voice.

"I see, Mr Potter? Do you have any thing to report?"

"Actually I do," James admitted, Lily looked at him in surprise but decided to go along with it anyway.

"Please continue,"

"Okay then, Professor Sprout, this is mainly towards you. In first year, Hufflepuff, I believe you have a girl named Emily?" James questioned.

"Yes, Emily?" Professor Sprout replied, her brow knitted in concern.

"Well, I have reason to believe she's being bullied," James said with confidence, before going into detail explaining how he found Emily being beaten up by Snape and his friends – at this point Lily paled considerably – and how she is never talking to any of her year, just older students.

"I shall look into it, thank you for alerting me James. It has been a long time since anything in Hufflepuff has slipped under my radar and I can't afford to start letting it happen now," Sprout thanked gratefully.

"Thank you Miss Evans, Mr Potter. You may leave and attend you lessons now," Dumbledore dismissed them with one last smile before turning to his colleagues to discuss more private matters.

"Lily, do you think you could bring Lucie and Summer to our common room after lessons today?" James queried casually.

"Yeah, course. Bye James," Lily chirped cheerfully before knocking on the classroom door and disappearing into Charms, with James in quick pursuit.

"OK, well everyone's here, so I was wondering if you all wanted to come to mine for a week before the Christmas Ball? My mum told me to ask, she said that she was bored of only boys and wanted to meet some of my friends who are girls," James ran a hand through his hair, being careful not to say 'girl-friends'.

"Um, James, my mum is...sick, um, I can't sorry," Peter squeaked before scurrying out of the room.

"That's fine Wormy," James tried to respond but Peter had already left the room, without more than a raised eyebrow James let him go. "So...what about you guys?" James asked nervously.

"I can't see why I wouldn't be able to, but, James, are you sure?" Lily spoke carefully, hoping James got the message she was trying to send: 'Are you sure? Your parents are ill, remember?'

"Yeah, mum and dad are fine with it; they can't wait," James beamed at the prospect Lily might be coming.

"All right then, I will owl my parents," Lily agreed, her eyes twinkling at James' wide beam.

"Great," he said enthusiastically.

"Yeah, I probably can too, I will have to ask my parents though," Summer assured.

"Luce? Remus?" James prompted.

"Yeah, mate, I can come," Remus replied.

"I will have to ask dad first, but he will probably agree," Lucie said in her soft voice.

"Awesome!" James exclaimed, sharing a joyful hi-five with Sirius.

"This is going to be a great Christmas!" Sirius whooped.

The night before the Hogwarts Express left for the Christmas holidays was chaos for the girls; all of their parents had agreed to let them go, but the had no idea what to pack. Lily decided to just pack her trunk minus the school robes, the other two however had no idea what Muggle clothes to pack.

"Lily! Where's my bra?" Summer shouted across Lily's room, where they had brought their bags to pack in an effort to avoid Juliet.

"Why in the name of Merlin's pants would I know where your underwear is?" Lily replied, laughing at Summer's frustrated expression.

"I don't know but I need it!" Summer shrieked, collapsing into giggles as she threw a pair of socks at Lucie.

"Well you'll need these as well but I'm not giving them back!" Lucie sulked playfully as she snatched the socks out of the air.

"Oooh, Lucie juicey should be playing seeker!" Summer cackled.

"Too bad Lily's boy friend has taken it!"Lily who had been sitting out of the clothes war flung her book down and glared at Lucie.

"Honestly?" she questioned, raising a sceptical eyebrow.

"Yes," came the reply muffled by squeals of laughter.

"Bring it sister!" Lily threw herself at Lucie and soon they found themselves in a fierce play fight whilst Summer pummelled them with socks.

Unbeknown to the three girls the door creaked open, Remus' head peeking through. He gave a small chuckle of laughter and upon Summer's orders flung himself onto the scrum. Summer stopped throwing the socks but both Lily and Lucie carried on, not noticing the extra body. That was until he found himself face to face with Lucie.

"Hello Luce," he laughed.

"Remus," Lucie smiled, her face flushed and hair tangled. Slowly their heads moved together as they got lost in each other's eyes. Their lips met with a gentle sweetness, but grew fierce as Remus pulled Lucie closer.

"GET OFF OF ME!" Lily's yell came from between them, and looking down in embarrassment they saw her head stuck between Lucie's stomach and Remus' chest. They scrambled quickly apart, straightening out their robes as Lily muttered, "Thank you, now I believe you have some packing to do?"

Just at that moment James decided to saunter in, saw they situation and began to roar with laughter. Not so long after Summer's giggles joined in and soon they were all laughing until tears dampened their cheeks.

{~*~*~*~}

The train journey was long and tedious, but ran with no interruptions. When they reached the platform Lily felt butterflies jumping in her stomach. Leading the small group over to the far left of the station, James ran his hand through his all ready bush like hair.

"This is my mum – Dorea Potter – and my dad – Charles Potter," he introduced.

Lily knew instantly she would like James' parents. Dorea had James' easy going smile and Charles had his good looks. Dorea had deep blue eyes and dark red hair – so dark it was almost brown. Charles had James' dark hair and hazel eyes and apart from slight minuscule differences the father and son looked almost identical.

"Hello, we've heard so much about you all, especially you," Dorea winked at Lily, normally Lily would have felt annoyed with this but she somehow knew Dorea's teasing was kind.

"Well are we going home or not?" Sirius asked impatiently, "I for one know I have been way too long without one of your cookies mum."

"You little scamp," Charles' voice was deep and melodious, and had a calming effect on Lily.

For once in her life, she agreed with Sirius; she could not wait to see the Potter's home.

**A/N – Sorry for the long wait and short chapter, my school work has been hectic at the moment but hopefully I will find more time to fit writing in. **

**I am still finding time to re-type the chapters with strange format but hopefully that shall be fixed soon.**

**Pretty pretty please could I reach 60 reviews by my birthday next week? Please? As a birthday present?**

**Also could you please check out the story called When the stars go blue by Voldemort13 she is an amazing author and it is a really promising Lily/James story!**


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